One of the critiques I see of a board game as art is "If you remove the theme, it isn't about anything." I simply cannot imagine disregarding elements of an art piece that the designer considered and gifted to me so casually. If I remove the colors from a painting, it's just brushstrokes. 1/4
Not really, it will be a black and white picture. Now if you took away the brush strokes...
Engage with the theme. Sit inside it and look at the game around you. Wade through the implications and marvel at what surprises you. Hold its hands and dance together. If you do all that and then have critiques about dissonance or misalignment or substance or unintended insinuation, fantastic! 2/4
But the designer has offered you the game as a whole, a gift of artistry and craft. If you want to engage critically, it should be taken comprehensively, loved or hated as such, not sneered at and stripped for parts so you only have to engage with the parts that you deem worthy of mattering. 3/4
I'll more about board games soon, loudly and passionately, with care and thought. I love games because I can inhabit them and marvel at the intended and emergent wonders created. If you've dismissed the art of board games, I'm inviting you to look again. You'll be surprised by what you missed. 4/4
Credit for this manifesto goes to @jdragsky.bsky.social for inspiring this fervor in me, and to @amabel.bsky.social for incredible video essays about this wonderful hobby that set my brain aflame- go watch this video that's been living in my brain rent-free for months www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4z...
BEAUTIFULLY stated! As a game and art enthisiast that regretfully has overlooked boardgames but recently began admiring many for their box arts, this post makes me wanna look more into them and give this video a watch ☺️
A game called RYŪ showed me how important a theme can be. I really struggled to understand the rules. The way islands moved in this fantasy game was strange. BGG actually lists the original description with a space theme and planets. The rules suddenly made sense.
"If you remove the theme, it isn't about anything." Jeez that is a VERY ONLINE thing to say